Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-20-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20101020.3.3-021"2
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"Mr President, I would like to quote a passage from the statement made by the Heads of State or Government at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh held on 24-25 September 2009 – in other words, a year ago. The Heads of Government committed themselves at that summit to the following: ‘To launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth. We need a durable recovery that creates the good jobs our people need’. Great! I presume that a similar passage will be written again this year at the next summit, and also at all the other summits. This leads me to ask what has been done in the meantime to bring about the strong, sustainable and balanced growth that will bring the jobs our people need. The description is correct, but what is being created is a philosophy at European level – in the European Council – that says that unilateral cuts in public services through budget reductions are a cure-all for stabilising our continent, rather than giving consideration to the fact that investment that stimulates growth is a basic prerequisite for creating more jobs and, through greater economic growth, bolstering state revenues – as is so urgently needed to consolidate state budgets and enable states to perform their duties. What we are seeing in Europe is that as a result of a more or less black-and-white Manichaean process under which all expenditure is bad and all cuts are good, we find ourselves in a situation in which the countries worst affected by the crisis – Ireland and Greece – are in recession or have zero growth. What is actually being done in practice is achieving the opposite of what was described here as the objective. That is a dramatic development. It is all the more dramatic when those who were at the source of the crisis, who caused the crisis – the financial sector, those who speculated with wild abandon – have not been held accountable by being made to contribute to state revenues through measures such as a financial transaction tax. This may have been advocated at European level, but even at the time it was being advocated, it was already being put on ice on the grounds that ‘We’ll never get it though the G20’. Of course we will not get it through the G20 if we do not even try it first at European level!
This is an injustice that is particularly dramatic because the lack of action on the part of the Heads of State or Government – the fact that they are leading us in the wrong direction of social imbalance – is continually being reinforced. The people in revolt on the streets are right in that social imbalance in Europe is not being fought against, but rather is being intensified further by incorrect policies. It is the job of this Parliament to make this apparent and to develop strategies to counter it. That is why we insist on the financial transaction tax. The report by Mrs Berès and the report by my colleague, Mrs Podimata, will show us whether this House is prepared to say: ‘We know that it will not be easy, but we insist that the European Union makes a start at levying taxes transnationally on the financial sector if it cannot be taxed at national level’.
There is a further worrying development. What happened in Deauville between Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel turns the institutional structure of the European Union on its head. I ask myself when Mr Van Rompuy will draw the appropriate conclusion. He has been asked to work with his task force on detailing the necessary reforms – that should really have been your job, so it was a bit of a cheek to ask Mr Van Rompuy to do it – but to cap it all, the poor man is working on it in secret and before he can present anything at all, our charming couple in Deauville waltz up and announce: ‘We have already decided everything’. What Nicolas and Angela did – this self-appointed Franco-German management committee – is an assault on the institutions of the European Union.
If I were Mr Van Rompuy, I would tell them where they could stick their job. You cannot keep being a doormat for ever and putting up with such abuse. There is one more thing, however: if our fine couple had glanced across the channel from Deauville, they would have seen the white cliffs of the British coast, where a referendum is required for their amendments to the treaty – at least, if Mr Cameron is to be believed. Does anyone really think that Mr Cameron would accept the amendment without incorporating further brakes into the treaty to slow down European law? That really would open a Pandora’s box. I do hope that our charming couple do not come crashing to the floor.
I therefore repeat: Europe is being led in the wrong direction, both institutionally and in substance."@en1
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